Lucky Bag Yearbook

From the 1950 Lucky Bag:

HAMILTON ERWIN MCDOWELL, JR.

Mac was born a Texan, but he lived in New York (“shore was cold”) and Florida before he permanently adopted the Lone Star State. He was finishing his second year in Electrical Engineering at Texas A & M College when duty called. Mac likes the water and spent his free time rowing on the Crew Team and sailing yawls in the bay. He holds the distinction of being the only man to put the Big Mo. under attack with a yawl, which is characteristic of Mac—always willing to take on any odds.

Loss

Hamilton was lost on September 21, 1951 when the P-80A Shooting Star he was aboard crashed shortly after taking off from Fallon AFB, Nevada. Hamilton’s plane was one of three that were traveling to Shreveport where the pilots were to study navigation. He was a member of the 3595th Pilot Training Group.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

At Texas A&M, Hamilton was in the Infantry Company “C” in 1945 and was a corporal in Company “F” in 1946.

In 1940, his father was a construction engineer for the electric utility company, mother Fannybelle, and sister Virginia. The family lived in Highland Park, just north of Dallas.

From the now-defunct website USNA 1950:

Mac was an all-round athlete as well as an all-round buddy. He played football at Texas A&M and was also a member of the track team. He took basic training at Connally AFB, Waco, TX and advanced training at Chandler, AZ. Upon transfer to gunnery school near Las Vegas, he crashed shortly after take off due to monoxide poisoning.

He is buried in Texas.

Photographs

From the yearbook of Texas A&M

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James Bowers ‘50, Wilbur Spradling, Jr. ‘50, James Wills, Jr. ‘50, Edward Hotz, Jr. ‘50, Cedric Peterson, Jr. ‘50, Lorenzo Daleo ‘50, George Duncan, Jr. ‘50, and Christopher Braybrooke ‘50 were also graduated from pilot training class 51-E, Williams AFB, Arizona, on August 4, 1951. (Sixty-seven Naval Academy graduates completed this class.¹)

References